Every Garden Needs a Gardener

In First Things First, A. Roger Merrill tells of a business consultant who decided to landscape his grounds. He hired a woman with a doctorate in horticulture ...

Help to Become Perfect

I find a good many people bothered by ... our Lord's words, "Be ye perfect." Some people seem to think this means "Unless you are perfect, ...

Preparing to Meet the Eternal

To follow Christ is to walk with Him first into the presence of His Father. If that is so, we had better know how to act in the divine presence now (in ...

What to Ask God For

I asked God to take away my pride, and God said no. He said it was not for him to take away, but for me to give up.

I asked God to make my handicapped ...

Doing Nothing and Doing Everything

Many Christians feel more comfortable with the idea that apart from Christ they can do nothing, than they do with the other side of that coin: that they ...

Waiting for Something Better

When my son, Rusty, was five, he wanted a ball glove. So I took him, and we went to three or four stores to get a glove to fit a tiny hand. No store had ...

Going Beyond Past Achievements

Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.

Brick into Marble

It was claimed for Augustus Caesar that he found Rome a city of brick, and left it a city of marble. The pastor who succeeds in changing his people from ...

When Lives Don't Change

What a deal there is of going to meetings and getting blessed, and then going away and living just the same, until sometimes we, who are constantly engaged ...

Diseases that Heal the Soul

God is often (in some sense) nearer to us, and more effectually present with us, in sickness than in health. ... He often sends diseases of the body to ...